Fact: Roughly 1 in 1,000 children in the U.S. are born with severe to profound hearing loss, and these children risk experiencing delays in language, speech development and reading skills.

Did you know that the library can provide amazing learning experiences for deaf and hard of hearing children and their parents with our ASL storytimes? Kathryn, a patron of the Belmar Library[2], has two children who were born deaf. She says "It’s important to me that they learn to love reading as much as I do. ASL storytimes give them the opportunity to interact with others, acquire important pre-reading skills, develop their cognitive abilities, and communicate more fully with the world around them." The ASL storytimes allow her children to be 100 percent part of the library activity and share their beautiful language with everyone else. She adds, "I love how the library shows them that they are important - and that reading is important for them, too.”